CAPTAIN SAMS
Pleasant morning over at Captain Sam's where we banded 19 birds and put out 20 new bands for a total of 49 birds of 15 species today.
Song Sparrow from earlier this season. Note the strong central breast spot which can be helpful in distinguishing the species from other North American Sparrows.
One of the species we had today was a recap Song Sparrow. Song Sparrows are beautiful little sparrows of brushy edges and thickets that can be found almost anywhere in North America at one season or another and can require as little as half an acre to construct a territory and raise their broods. Interestingly, this species shows a delightful degree of variation depending on where it lives in both song and physical appearance. Songs appear to be learned early in life from surrounding males, with one study indicating that Song Sparrows learn 90% of their repertoires within the first 90 days of life. This means that over their broad range Song Sparrows can have a variety of "accents;" which has led, in my experience, to having to reacquaint myself with this species depending on my travels.
In regards to physical appearance Cornell's Birds of the World website states that this is one of the most polytypic species in North America, and perhaps the world. 38 subspecies are sometimes recognized though the minimal mentioned on Birds of the World was 24. These can vary from small, light colored birds in the American Southwest or California's Channel Islands to large, dark, towhee-sized birds in Aleutian Islands of Alaska. While these differences can be stark, with great size variation and a variety of red, brown, gray, and tan hues being commonplace, it is important to remember that many of these populations are nearly indistinguishable and these changes often occur gradually over the bird's range and are therefore less stark than might otherwise be proposed. Further confounding the situations is that many populations are migratory while others are year-round resulting in mixed populations in some areas in migration and winter.
One lovely fact about this species is that it truly does live up to its name in that it is one of the first birds to herald the springtime with its song. This can be as early as January or February and will be heard increasingly often as northern birds make their way to their summer homes.
With the close of the season for us techs tomorrow I will soon be on my own migration to the Atlantic coast of Florida to spend the winter capturing till springtime. This has been a wonderful season on Kiawah and I am grateful for my time here. I hope to carry the skills I gained here to other places, particularly once the Song Sparrows start singing and I head north with them.
Goodbye and thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Jeremiah
LITTLE BEAR
We ended up getting a decent amount of birds out at Little Bear today. We banded 22 birds and processed 29 recaps for a total of 51 birds of 14 different species. This is a both a better ratio of new birds to recaps and better species diversity than the past handful of days. Lower wind speeds and fewer gusts led to birds being more active around the site, meaning more birds in the net and also more bird activity to watch and appreciate in between net runs.
The increased diversity led to some interesting captures today: a recap Sharp-shinned Hawk, another American Robin, a lovely female Eastern Towhee, and Little Bear's first Blue-headed Vireo of the season! I've been hoping we would see them since Captain Sam's started catching them a couple weeks ago. There is just one more day of banding left for Little Bear, and we hope we can add at least one more new species to our season list.
-Liz
Blue-headed Vireo, hatch-year unknown sex
Eastern Towhee, after-hatch-year female
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear |
|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps |
|---|
Sharp-shinned Hawk | - | - | - | 1 |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | - | - | 1 | - |
Blue-headed Vireo | - | - | 1 | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 1 | - | 1 |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 2 | 2 | 3 | - |
House Wren | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Wren | - | 1 | - | 1 |
Gray Catbird | 1 | 9 | 3 | 21 |
Hermit Thrush | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
White-throated Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Song Sparrow | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Swamp Sparrow | - | - | 3 | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | - | 1 | - | - |
American Robin |
| - | 1 | - |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 2 | 1 | - | - |
Myrtle Warbler | 9 | - | 8 | 3 |
Painted Bunting | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | - |
| Grasshopper Sparrow | - | 1 | - | - |
| | | | |
| - | - | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|
| # Birds Banded | 19 | 22 | 41 |
| # of Recaptures | 20 | 29 | 49 |
| # of Species | 15 | 14 | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 208 | 168 | - |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 23.6 | 30.4 | - |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | - |
|
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|
| # Birds Banded | 5,152 | 3,485 | - |
| # of Recaptures | 1,141 | 1,038 | - |
| # of Species | 92 | 93 | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 14,053.4 | 10,334.2 | - |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 44.8 | 43.8 | - |
| # of Days | 87 | 76 |
|
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Liz Held (LB)
Camille Beckwith (LB)
Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)
Keegan Foster (CS)
Note: All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.
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